I love Torres, but El Nino can sometimes become El Ninny when he missed wide open nets - he's the guy that will get you out of your seat on a fantastic play one minute and then send you crashing to your seat again, head in hands after a blown chance that surely should have been in the back of the net

Lampard has always been very consistent for Chelsea, shame to hear he's gone icicle-like, plus injury is a bummer. I know from a Bayern perspective, I'm always sad to see Robben get injured for yet another string of the season that he will miss, he's such a key player if only injuries didn't limit him so much

He has the experience that will help teach younger inexperienced players how to play smart. Every team needs experience, not just skill. Sometimes the more experienced team will win out over a more skilled team with a lack of experience. So Lampard definitely isn't finished yet, he can use experience to give him the edge over skill

[account-removed]4 years ago

Tottenham:

Hot:

Aaron Lennon: Often overshadowed by a flashier Bale, people do not realize that Lennon is far more consistent than him. Through the game, he tears through the defence with some tricky runs and has been performing at top levels.

Vertonghen: To have a defender be one of the team's most potent attacking threat through open play.... That takes some doing. Intelligent runs forward, and 2 brilliant goal saving tackles this season so far, Vertonghen has already won hearts over.

Defoe: To never have played as a lone striker in your career, and learn to do so at the age of 30 and continually score goals and be a genuine thorn in attack, as well as hounding the defenders when they have the ball all through the game.... It takes a special kind of person. Defoe is that man, clearly putting down everything on line for the team and for his spot.

Sandro + Dembele: Starting to get affectionately be known as "the gruesome twosome" by spurs fans on the site, they have found a brilliant partnership in a short span of time. Both of them are in the top 5 of the EPL's tackling, interception and pass conversion rates, and seem to have a very good understanding of not only their own roles, but each other's roles as well.

Not hot:

Dempsey: Has found the going tough after his switch from Fulham. Not really in the right place at the right time, and isn't gelling well with the squad. Sometimes cuts a lone figure on the pitch.

Sigurdsson: Has the same problem as Dempsey, not finding a way to break into the squad, and not justifying his inclusion when he does fit in.

Walker: Found his performances get rewarded with the young player of the year award last season, he is well on his way to justify his nickname a few of us spurs fans have given him, not so lovingly.... "Legs without a brain". The British talent hype unfairly gives him credit, and consistently makes mistakes throughout the game, and is simply positionally unaware of anything going on.

It seems that like carrol, Dempsey has struggles to hit form with his new clib. He has the potential to play well, and has done so in the past, but what hinders him?

[account-removed]4 years ago

Dempsey's main problem is that he hasn't found his role as yet with the club. At Fulham, everything used to go through him. He was possibly the most talented, along with Dembele. However, here, he's got to be the provider for Defoe/Adebayor. He's sometimes used on the Left wing, and it doesn't suit him. He's struggling to adapt, and struggling to make friends. The same with Sigurdsson.

Dembele on the other hand, has the same role, and he's fitted in like a glove. Over time, I do believe that both Sigurdsson and Dempsey will be able to fit into the squad. The question is, will they have the patience to wait for it and will the fans have the patience with them to give them as many chances

Bastian Schweinsteiger: underlining his great form with his performance for the national team. Already scored a few times, always very present on the pitch, he's the person everybody in the team looks for, he dislocates the game with brilliant passes like 2 years ago as he was world class. When he's in that form, he just can't play bad. His form plays a major role for bayerns great form atm.

Toni Kroos: Great passes, good performance for germany as well. Showed his brilliant shots several times this season scoring some nice goals. His confidence is displayed in the way he performs and he can play his favorite position as CAM now, what has a huge impact on his performance imo. Key player.

Franck Ribéry : Totally deserving his Ballon d'Or nomination. Worldclass dribbling, seems to improve his shots. Really incalculable for the defence and always a threat. What I really like about him is that he knows exactly when to play selfishly or altruisticly.

Thomas Müller: I don't know what to say about this guy. This guy is pure instinct. He seemed to miss it last season but then obviously found it again to get several times on the scoresheet. Wonderful player, hell of a rascal.

Who's not:

Robben: Seemed to find his form again in the first games but then was stopped by injury. Its a pity that he can't escape this s**t. Without all the injuries I'm sure that he would be in a line with ronaldo, iniesta, .... (messi is extraterrestrial). Great left foot, always remembering his wonder shots in champions league season 09/10 and in the following seasons.

Pizarro: love this guy, but except a goal in the first round of DFB-Cup he didn't score. Wasted many chances when he played against Valencia or Bremen. Has to find his rythm again

Juan Mata: has been burning hot for us, has been MOTM in most of our recent games, has like 1-2 goals and 4-5 assists in his last 4 games, showing brilliant chemistry and link up play with Hazard, Oscar, Torres

Hazard: Hazard was phenomenal at the start, he's been involved with atleast 10 of our goals in the League alone and has 2 goals himself, been causing defenders terrors and shd have had a couple of penalties too.

Oscar: While Oscar is not contributing (in terms of goals and assists) as much as Hazard/Mata, his general link up play with the team is exceptional, two sublime goals against Juve shows the class he will become and his defensive marking is outstanding + he was brilliant for Brazil in thier friendly (along with Kaka!)

Torres: Say what you want but he has scored 6 goals in about 11 matches and has linked up terrifically with our midfield, has a postive influence on the team and works very hard for us. He may not be the Torres of old but he is looking on form. Only aspect that needs tweeking is his 1 on 1 shooting....

Petr Cech: has been brilliant and pulled off some match winning saves recently

Who's not

This is very tough as no particular person has been terrible for us recently, maybe Mikel a few weeks back, but he has improved drastically.

Ramires: In advanced positions he wasn't looking good at all but when positioned at CM he has looked much better (against Arsenal especially) so technically he shouldn't be here.

Lampard: was not clicking for us this season, why we have used Ramires-Mikel much more. But in the recent 2 games he was brilliant (scoring a great goal against Norwich). I feel his role doesn't really suit us for the style we trying to play this season but he still is a Legend (again doesn't really belong here)

Very tough for 'Who's not' I couldn't think of any1.... Our whole team has been brilliant (apart from the Super Cup game obv) and that shows cause we are table toppers in both EPL and UCL (undefeated too)

Rafael Da Silva: The young fullback has been on fire this season putting in great performances week in week out. He seem to have matured over the summer and is currently one of the best fullbacks in the league, although he is still nowhere close to the player we expect him to be. This season he has been reading the game better, timing his runs forward to perfection, creating chances for our forwards, scoring goals and also defending like a true fullback. If he continues like this we expect him to be in the team of the year at the end of the season.

Tom Cleverley:

In 2009, we were hot on the trail of David Silva, every fan wanted him at united except me. Why didn't I want him at united you ask? Because we had Tom Cleverley. A few people on footytube got annoyed with me constantly talking about a player who had yet to play a competitive game for united, but once he finally got that opportunity they saw why I praised a reserve player so much. This season he has been a stand out player in the midfield both for united and England. He has been scoring goals, creating goals, supports the defence and is there to assist the attack. If he stays injury free, he can go on to become the best English midfielder of this generation(along with Wilshere).

Not

Nani: On his day he is one of the best wingers in the world, making top fullbacks look like amateurs but he has yet to have one of those days this season. Nani is a player who plays on confidence and clear to see his confidence is low.

Valencia: Maybe I am being a bit unfair but Valencia has been horrible for a while now. He still looks like a beast on the field going forward and defending but his bulls eye crosses has vanished, to the point that he has yet to pick out a united player with any of his crosses this season. Van Persie and Rooney could score a hatrick each every game if we had the old Valencia back. The Valencia who helped Rooney to 30+ goals in 09/10

See what I don't is the criticism Nani is getting and I only wish he had fallen out this bad when we sold United Young. I'd be very happy if we traded Young and 10 million for Nani.

Nani is a game changer, not only this but very rarely out of form. His bad days are when he plays selfishly, or is over confident. Rarely does he have a game where this happens over 90 minutes. This may not be the best observation of Nani overall, as I am not a United fan but I have seen a lot of Nani and United

And tbh, Valencia is one of the best talents and professional footballers going around. Very level headed. So I disagree entirely with this evaluation. 'Horrible' and Valencia are so far apart in performance and attitude!

Marco Reus. Not only does great for Germany, being their most prolific player and just tearing up defences with his pace, skill and great shots, but also doing well for Dortmund despite a few lesser games. He's clearly worth twice as much as Dortmund paid for him, and he will be key for BvB in both Germany and Europe. Ilkay Gündogan. The man who was brought in last year to cope with the loss of Nuri Sahin isn't quite as complete as Sahin yet, but he's made great progress so far, and his splitting through balls and vision are now underlined by the excellent partnership with Sven Bender whose work allows Ilkay more freedom. Lukasz Piszcek. Was essential in last year's title and proves he's not yet saturated at all by continuing his very impressive performances. His pace, crosses and workrate are immense, and he's very similar to a good Dani Alves on his peak. His defensive ability (especially positioning, the most important defensive trait for a full-back) has skyrocketed in the past two years. Consistently good performer for Dortmund. Mats Hummels. He's more than just a very reliable defender. His positioning and anticipation (I. E. Reading of the game) is possibly the best in the world for a central defender, his calm oozes confidence to the whole team and his passing to initiate attacks is fantastic. He's not even in spectacularly good form, but his talent is such that he usually sticks out above the other 21 players, quite literally too.

Not:

Robert Lewandowski. Clearly a bit out of form, Lewa now needs a bit more confidence. He's not playing bad, but his runs aren't clever enough to allow the midfielders to create chances for him. Might feel the rushes and goals from Reus decrease his chances of scoring, but he'll just have to adapt to that situation and create a synergy with Marco instead.

I would've added Weidenfeller to the list were it not for his great performance against City and his more than decent showing in the Hannover game. His aerial inability is often painful to watch and before the City game it looked like the defence had completely lost faith in him as they constantly clashed and didn't communicate well

Di maria: as usually has the final ball, apart from his workrate he is able to give the killer pass and so does lately, vital in madrid's attack!

Marcelo: has been in great form, contributes offensively like he is a winger, he has improved defensively therefore this season he is decent at the back too. He is exceptional

Cristiano: apart from his bad start to the season he turned the coin and stepped up wherever he was needed, once again with his amazing runs and finishing

Not:

Higuain: apart from the goal against barca where in the game he still missed dosens of chances he's been poor, wasting chances after chances, needs to improve....

Ozil: for his standarts he has been really bad, fades away though still is able to leave his mark as he did against barca with his assist to ronaldo, still this is not the ozil we once were watching with joy

Carl Jenkinson: Has improved exponentially since last season, still a way away from being a finished product but is proving why Wenger bought him in a year ago. Has the most energy i've seen in a player, never stops running and doesn't give up.

Santi Carzola: What can I say, I'm almost happy we missed out on Mata last year now because it meant we got Carzola this year, is an absolute pleasure to watch and I hope we can keep him for a few years after the 30m offers come in for him.

Arteta: My favourite player, never seems to put a foot wrong and with his 94% pass accuracy is invaluable as a midfield anchor.

I've decided to just highlight these 3 players because so far this season they are the ones I have enjoyed the most

Pedro. He looks back to his best, confidence in taking on defenders, dribbling well, getting chances, making the right movements.

Cesc. Just snapped his goalless streak and seems to have a midas touch along with some great movement and looks to have a new found freedom on the pitch. Not quite back to his very best but close.

Not:

Busquets. Although his late performances have been good he seems a little off than usual. Sometimes making clumsy challenges, sometimes making bad decisions. Bright side is his positioning is almost always spot on.

Alves. Just not the same Alves as we are used to see. His runs down the right side seem predictable, and he isn't as venomous cutting in as we are known to seeing

Edit: actually I can; Victor Valdés is definitely in the 'not' section. He hasn't been near his best for about 8 months now, and it's really bugging me, because he already lost us the Supercopa and will continue to make us lose valuable games if he can't get to his 2008-2011 form soon. The rest of the team is thankfully doing really great. I even think Sánchez, who has been criticised too often lately, is doing well. Not great, but he does add something only Tello could add otherwise

I'd personally add Basti on the HOT list. You can see his dominance in the midfield and his presence does make some difference. And he's scoring too. Might be coincidence, but the game he didn't start against BATE, we lost (okay so he didn't start against Greuther Furth either, we won that, however I am overlooking it because that was very beginning of the season)

Well after two major injuries last season, that trauma of champions league final, playing euro without being fully fit, I was worried about him tbh. But he came back nicely and I'm praying my hearts hope he'll stay like this and stay injury free. He's irreplaceable